New York City, Day 2... Tree

Today, Susan and Mark began their journey North!

This morning Aaron and I set to see the Statue of Liberty. We saw her, but from far away. Oh, but we did see a few gentleman up close that were dressed like her! We didn't have much time to take the ferry over to Ellis Island so we decided to head over to Ground Zero.

No words can do our experience at Ground Zero justice. The site is under major construction/recovery which spans several city blocks both north to south and east to west. There were several large posters of what is being constructed on the site. The site is to be completed in 2010 which includes one large tower (the "Freedom Tower") and also a 9/11 memorial. The original WTC site included about 7 buildings, 2 of which were the twin towers. They have rebuilt only building 7 to date. FDNY station 10 (both an engine and ladder company) is directly across the street from the WTC site and was originally built because of the WTC. One firefighter was hanging out on the street in front of the bay so of course we started talking to him. He was very friendly and gave us a fabulous pizza place suggestion that we later tried. There was a 9/11 memorial inside the bay as well as one very large metal etching on the side of the building and one smaller one in between the two bays of the six firefighters of the station that died. We do have several photos of the area as well as the etchings which we will be able to post tomorrow. Walking around the bordering fence of the site, we eventually came up on the WTC subway station which has been restored and is now also a temporary memorial site. There are several large photos from 9/11 spanning the day of and days to weeks after. There is also a timeline, minute by minute, of the actual day. The emotions were overwhelming at this point as I thought about what that day meant for our nation's history, those that lost their lives -- not only fellow public safety personnel but also the citizens and visitors in the area, and how it has impacted our lives now. It is definately one thing to be living across the country but to be on the very concrete the dust and debris blew onto was something much more powerful.

I don't remember if Eric ever made it here after 9/11 but he was definately on our minds today.